Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	brotherly_a	faith_n	godliness_n	3,027	5	9.6246	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43554	Theologia veterum, or, The summe of Christian theologie, positive, polemical, and philological, contained in the Apostles creed, or reducible to it according to the tendries of the antients both Greeks and Latines : in three books / by Peter Heylyn.	Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.	1654 (1654)	Wing H1738; ESTC R2191	813,321	541

Spirit in which we shall discern both his power and office These gifts and graces of the Spirit the School-men commonly divide into Gratis data such as being freely given by God are to be spent as freely for the good of others of which kinde are the gift of tongues curing diseases and the like and gratum facientia such as do make him good and gracious on whom it pleaseth God to bestow the same as Faith Iustice Charity The first are in the Scripture called by the name of gifts Now there are diversity of gifts saith the Apostle but the same Spirit For to one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another the word of Knowledge by the same Spirit to another Faith by the same Spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another divers kindes of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues The later are called Fruits by the same Apostle The Fruits of the Spirit saith he are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance The Gifts are known most commonly by the name of Gratis data the Fruits pertain to Gratum facientia The Gratum facientia belong to every man for himself the Gratis data for the benefit of the Church in common That which God giveth us for the benefit and use of others must be so spent that they may be the better for it because not given unto us for own sakes onely nor to gain others to our selves but all to him In which respect Gods Servants are to be like Torches which freely wast themselves to give light to others like Powder on the day of some Publick Festival which freely spends it self to rejoyce the multitude That which he gives us for our selves must be so improved that we may thereby become fruitful unto all good works vessels prepared and sanctified for the Masters use In the first of these we may behold the power of the Holy Ghost in the last his office His power in giving tongues to unlearned men knowledge to the ignorant wisdom to the simple the gift of prophecy even unto very Babes and Sucklings I mean to men not studied in the Liberal Sciences A power so great that no disease is incurable to it no spirit so subtile and disguised but is easie discerned by it no tongue so difficult and hard which it cannot interpret no miracle of such seeming impossibility but it can effect it In which regard the Holy Ghost is called in Scripture The power of God The power of the most High shall over-shadow thee Luke 1.35 And Christ our Lord having received the ointing of the holy Spirit is said to be anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Acts 10.38 Nor want I Reasons to induce me unto this opinion that when Simon Magus had effected by his sorceries and lying wonders to be called the great power of God but that his purpose was to make men believe that he was the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God which title afterwards he bestowed on his strumpet Helena and took that of CHRIST unto himself as the more famed and fitting for his devilish purposes Next for his Office that consisteth in regenerating the carnal and sanctifying the regenerate man First In regenerating of the carnal For except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God saith our Blessed Saviour of Water as the outward Element but of the holy Spirit as the inward Efficient which moving on the Waters of Baptism as once upon the face of the great Abyss doth make them quickning and effectual unto newness of life Then for the Work of Sanctification that is wrought wholly by the Spirit who therefore hath the name of the Holy Ghost not onely because holy in himself formaliter but because holy effective making them holy who are chosen unto life eternal So say St. Peter the first and St. Paul the last of the Apostles St. Peter first Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience 1 Pet. 1.2 And so St. Paul But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of our Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 6.11 That is to say Iustified in the Name of our Lord Iesus through Faith in him and sanctified by the Spirit of God through the effusion of his Graces in the Soul of Man The work of Sanctification is not wrought but by many acts as namely By shedding abroad in our hearts that most excellent gift of charity filling our souls with righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost by teaching us to adde To our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity that we be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ. Though Christ be the Head yet is the Holy Ghost the Heart of the Church from whence the vital spirits of grace and godliness are issued out unto the quickning of the Body mystical And as the vital spirits in the body natural are sensibly perceived by the motion of the heart the breathing of the mouth and by the beating of the pulse so by the same means may we easily discern the motions of the Spirit of Grace First It beginneth in the heart by putting into us new hearts more sanctified desires than we had before A new heart will I also give you and a new spirit will I put within you saith the Lord by the Prophet Ezekiel And to what end That ye may walk in my Statutes and keep my Iudgments This new heart is like the new wine which our Saviour speaks of not possible to be contained in old bottles but will break out first in new desires For Novum supervenisse spiritum nova demonstrant desideria as St. Bernard hath it Nor will it break out onely in desires or wishes but we shall finde it on our tongues for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And if the heart be throughly sanctified we may be sure that no corrupt communication will come out of our mouths but onely such as is good to the use of edifying and may minister grace unto the hearers The same breath in the natural body is Organon vitae vocis as experience telleth us The Instrument of life and voice it is the same we live by and the same we speak by And so it is also in the Body mystical as well the vocal as the vital breath proceeding both alike from the Holy Ghost Nor stayes it onely on the tongue but as the beating of the pulse is best found at the hand so if we would desire to know how the

he only made a shew of faith which he never had Why so Quia Lucas aperte testatur eum credidisse because S. Luke affirms that he did believe being convinced by the signs and miracles which S. Philip wrought as many others of Samaria at the same time were And yet no doubt but Simon Magus was a Reprobate a man rejected by the Lord in regard of his wickedness and that his heart was not right in the sight of God and afterwards an author of such mischief in the Church of God that Ignatius who lived neer those times very rightly cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first begotten of the Devil The like m●y be affirmed also of Alexander Hymeneus and Philetus who had been made partakers of the Faith of CHRIST and were zealous in it for the time but afterwards made shipwrack of it denying amongst other Articles of the Christian faith that of the resurrection of the dead and thereby overthrowing the faith of some Men questionless given over to a reprobate sense or else we may be well assured St. Paul had never given them over to the hands of Satan as it is plain he did But what need search be made into these particulars when Calvin himself affirms in general Reprobis fidem tribui eosdem interdum simili fere sensu atque Electos affici eosque merito dici Deum sibi propitium credere c. that Faith is given unto the Reprobate that sometimes they are touched with the like sense of Gods grace as the Elect ones are and may deservedly be said to believe that God is favourable and propitious to them God sometimes makes the Sun of Righteousness as well as the Sun of Heaven to shine on the evil and on the good Which notwithstanding Faith is called and that most properly Fides Electorum the Faith of Gods Elect in that and other places of the Book of God because the fruits thereof are in them more visible the confession of the same more fervent the seeds thereof more fastly rooted and the fruit more durable For which cause possibly the Apostle doth there join together the faith of Gods Elect and the knowledge of the truth which is after godliness Which is indeed the special difference which is between the faith of the Elect and the faith of the Reprobates For if the fruit be unto holiness no question but the end thereof will be life everlasting It is not then the weakness or the want of faith which doth alone exclude the Reprobate from the Kingdom of Heaven and make him finally uncapable of the grace and favour of the Lord in the day of judgement but the want of a good conscience in the sight of God And therefore if we mark it well St. Peter did not charge it upon Simon Magus that he wanted faith or that his faith was only a dissembled hypocritical faith upbraiding him as formerly Ananias in another case that he had not only lyed unto men but unto God but that he was in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity not having his heart right in the sight of God Nor did St. Paul accuse the said three Apostates that they never had received the faith or that the faith which they received was not true and real but that first having put away a good conscience they afterwards made shipwrack of the faith also blaspheming God and scattering abroad their dangerous errours to the seducing of their brethren If Simon had repented of his wickedness as St. Peter advised it may be charitably supposed that the thoughts of his heart had been forgiven him And Hymeneus and Alexander if they had made good use of the Apostles censure when he delivered them unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh no question but their spirits might have been saved in the day of the Lord IESUS Which may suffice for answer to the first objection touching the faith of reprobates as they use to call them whose firm assent to supernatural truths revealed makes them not inheritable to the Kingdom of Heaven because they hold the truth revealed in unrighteousness and so become without excuse as St. Paul tels us in another case of the antient Gentiles The next Objection is that if this phrase in Deum credere import no more then this that there is a God and that all his words are Divine truths and all the world the workmanship of his hands alone the Devils do belieue as much as St. Iames assures us Thou believest saith he that there is one God thou dost well the Devils also believe and tremble Iam. 1.19 The answer unto this is easie St. Iames assures us of the Devils that they believe there is one God but doth withall assure us this that this belief of theirs confirms them in the certainty and foreknowledge of their everlasting damnation the apprehension of the which produceth nothing in them but fear and horrour The Devils do believe that there is a God and that this God is just in all his actions and righteous in all his ways unchangeable in his Decrees Yesterday and to day and the same for ever What other comfort can they reap from this faith of theirs but that being once condemned by God to eternal fire they are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness to the judgement of the great and terrible day For knowing that the judgements of the Lord are just and his doom unchangeable they must needs know withall the certainty of their own damnation or else they cannot properly be affirmed to believe this truth that there is a God And as they do believe that there is a God so they believe also that he is the Maker of heaven and earth For being at the first created by Almighty God with so great perspicacity and clearness of the understanding they could not choose but know the hand that made them and consequently believe that he made all those things which are ascribed to God in the holy Scripture Though by their fall they lost the favour of the Lord their first estate in which they were created by Almighty God the grace by which they stood and the glories which they did possess yet lost they not that quickness and agility of motion that perspicacity and clearness of the understanding wherewith they were endowed by God at their first Creation But what makes this unto their comfort when the same knowledge or belief call it which you will by which they are assured that God made the Heavens and the Earth and all the things therein contained will keep them always in remembrance of this most sad truth that he also made an Hell of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth prepared for the Devill and his Angels To go a little farther yet the Devils did not only believe long since that CHRIST was come in the flesh but publickly proclaimed him in the open

in other things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is the end of the Law saith he because the justifi●ation of man which the Law undertook but could not accomplish was perfected and made good by Christ. And secondly both Christ may be said to be the end of the Law and the Law to bring men unto Christ because as Musculus well observeth the Law convincing men of sin exacting a righteousnesse of them which it doth not enable them to performe and again threatning and condemning them for the want thereof Nihil aliud agit quam quod ad Christum ducit per quem justificemur gratis doth lead them as it were by the hand to Christ by whose grace they are freely justifyed In a word our Saviour Christ is said to be the end of the Law and the Law to be a School-master to bring men to Christ because the whole Mosaical oeconomie which in one word is called The Law was for that end and purpose given unto the Iewes that it might instruct them touching the Messiah who was then to come and that in time they might be trained up and prepared to receive him and with him that more perfect forme of life and worship which he should establish at his coming And this is that which was intended by the Writers of the Primitive times when they tell us that the Law was nothing else but the Gospel masked the Gospel nothing else but the Law revealed or the vail taken away from the face of Moses Such passages in the books of the old Testament which relate to Christ before his coming in the flesh were so dark and difficult that those who were well exercised in the law of God and made it their study day and night might very well have asked this question as the Eunuch did Of whom I pray thee speaketh the Prophet this of himself or of some other man But when the Gospel came to be preached and published and that our Saviour had fulfilled all things which were spoken of him by the Prophets then was it easie to discern even by vulgar wits that the whole doctrine of the Gospel was contained in the Law and every thing concerning Christ either fore-shadowed or fore-signifyed in Types and Prophesies To bring this business to an end that both the Patriarchs and the Iews did rely on God for the accomplishment of his promise touching their salvation I do nothing doubt there being such evident testimonies of it from the first to the last I have waited for thy salvation O Lord saith the Patriarch Iacob long before the Law And almost at the expiration or last breath thereof it is said of Simeon that he waited for the consolation of Israel of Anna the old Prophetesse that she spake of CHRIST to all them that looked for redemption in Hierusalem but that they were acquainted with the means and method which God did purpose to make use of in so great a work or did rely on Christ to come for their justification as the Scripture no where saith it for ought I can finde so is there no reason to believe it for ought I can see What then perhaps will some men say had the Iews no advantages of their neighbouring Nations in matters which pertained to eternal life Yes certainly much every way For to the Israelites saith St. Paul pertained the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the Promises Theirs also were the Fathers and of them according to the flesh was Christ to come The Psalmist hath contracted these prerogatives of the house of Israel into somewhat a more narrow compasse He sheweth his word unto Jacob his statutes and ordinances unto Israel And then he addes He hath not dealt so with any Nations neither have the Heathen knowledge of his lawes Here was Prerogative enough the communion of his word the publication of his Law the Covenant made with those of the seed of Abraham and thereby their Adoption to eternal life and most unquestionably true it must be thought that there was no Nation under heaven to whom the ordinary means of salvation had been offered with so free an hand as it been to those of Iudah But yet the Psalmist doth not say that God was known only amongst the Iews or that he had not revealed so much of himself unto other Nations as to let them have a tast of his love and goodness or that he had not left them any knowledge of his Law at all for their directions in the way of life and godlyness For first besides the light of nature whith is given to every man that comes into the world and by the which the most barbarous people are instructed that there is a God they could not choose but know him in his very workes The heavens declaring the glory of God and the firmament shewing his handy-work as the Psalmist hath it His power and goodness they had tasted in their severall times in that he gave them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and filled their hearts with food and gladness as the Apostle pleaded it to them of Lystra And for the Law the Apostle telleth us this expresly that the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law and having not the Law are a Law to themselves which shewes the work of the Law written in their hearts their consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another But yet they had not such a knowledge either of God himself or the Law of God or any such ordinary outward means to attain the same as God had given at the same time to the house of Israel For they not only had the Law in writing which the Gentiles had not but they had the writings of the Prophets as a comment on it and more then so an ordinance or command from the Lord himself for the publick reading of the Law before them once in every year that they might hear and learn and fear the Lord their God and observe all the things of the Law to do them Greater advantages then these could no people have to bring them up in the assurance of eternal life which if all of them did not attain unto they had no reason to complain that God had been wanting unto them for what could he have done to his vineyard which he did not do but that they were wanting to themselves and made no profit by the Talent which the Lord had given them Reperies eos prius deseruisse quam desertos esse as in another case but of the same people said the Christian Advocate Yet notwithstanding the advantages which this people had the Gentiles were not left so destitute of all outward means to bring them to the knowledge of God as to be capable of excuse in their sins and wickedness though